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Richard Hughes (poet)
Richard Arthur Warren Hughes OBE (19 April 1900 - 28 April 1976) was an English poet and a writer of short stories, novels, and plays. Life Hughes was born in Weybridge, Surrey. His father was Arthur Hughes, a civil servant, and his mother Louisa Grace Warren, who had been brought up in Jamaica. He was educated at Charterhouse and graduated from Oriel College, Oxford in 1922. A Charterhouse schoolmaster had sent Hughes's first published work to The Spectator in 1917. The article, written as a school essay, was an attack on The Loom of Youth, by Alec Waugh, a recently published novel which caused a furore for its frank account of homosexual passions between British schoolboys in a public school. At Oxford he met Robert Graves, also an Old Carthusian, and they co-edited a poetry publication, Oxford Poetry, in 1921. Hughes's short play The Sister's Tragedy was in the West End at the Royal Court Theatre by 1922. He was the author of the world's first radio play, Danger, commissioned from him for the BBC by Nigel Playfair and broadcast on January 15, 1924. Hughes was employed as a journalist and travelled widely before he married, in 1932, the painter Frances Bazley. They settled for a period in Norfolk and then in 1934 at Castle House, Laugharne in south Wales. Dylan Thomas stayed with Hughes and wrote his book Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog whilst living at Castle House. During the Second World War, Hughes had a desk job in the Admiralty. He met the architects Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry, and Jane's and Max's children stayed with the Hughes family for much of that time. After the end of the War, he spent ten years writing scripts for Ealing Studios, and published no more novels until 1961. Family Richard and Frances Hughes had five children: Robert Elyston-Glodrydd (born 1932), Penelope (1934), Lleky Susannah (1936), Catherine Phyllida (1940) and Owain Gardner Collingwood (1943). Catherine married the historian Colin Wells in 1960. Writing He wrote only four novels, the most famous of which is The Innocent Voyage (1929), better known now as A High Wind in Jamaica, as Hughes himself would rename it shortly after its initial publication.Frank Swinnerton: "Books: Novel Changes Its Name for British Readers; 'Innocent Voyage' Soon to Be Reprinted," The Chicago Tribune (August 10, 1929), p. 6. "The novel by Richard Hughes, published with so much and such welcome success in the United States under the title of "The Innocent Voyage," is to be issued in England in the autumn. Its title will be 'High Wind in Jamaica.'" Set in the 19th century, it explores the events which follow the accidental capture of a group of English children by pirates: the children are revealed as considerably more amoral than the pirates (it was in this novel that Hughes first described the cocktail Hangman's Blood). In 1938, he wrote an allegorical novel In Hazard based on the true story of the S.S. Phemius that was caught in the Category 5 1932 Cuba hurricane for 4 days during its peak intensity. He wrote volumes of children's stories, including The Spider's Palace. His most important work is perhaps the trilogy The Human Predicament, of which only the first two volumes, The Fox in the Attic (1961) and The Wooden Shepherdess (1973), were complete when he died; twelve chapters, under 50 pages, of the final volume are now published. In these he follows the course of European history from the 1920s through the Second World War, including real characters and events — such as Hitler's escape following the abortive Munich putsch— as well as fictional. Recognition Hughes was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and, in the United States, an honorary member of both the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 1946. His poetry was included in the Oxford Book of Modern Verse. Publications Poetry *''Gipsy-Night, and other poems. Waltham Saint Lawrence, UK: Golden Cockerel, 1922; Chicago: W. Ransom, 1922. *''Confessio Juvenis: Collected poems. London: Chatto & Windus, 1926. Plays *''The Sisters' Tragedy''. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell, 1922. *''The Man Born to be Hanged: A play''. London: Chatto & Windus, 1924. *''The Sisters' Tragedy, and three other plays''. London: Heinemann, 1924. *''A Rabbit and a Leg: Collected plays''. New York: Knopf, 1924. *''A Comedy of Good and Evil: A play''. 2nd edition, London: Chatto & Windus, 1928. *''Plays: The sisters' tragedy / A comedy of good and evil / The man born to be hanged / Danger''. London: Chatto & Windus, 1928; New York: Harper, 1928. Novels *''A High Wind in Jamaica. London: Chatto & Windus, 1929. **published as ''The Innocent Voyage. New York: F. Watts, 1928; **(with introduction by Isobel Paterson). New York: Modern Library, 1929. *''In Hazard: A sea story''. London: Chatto & Windus, 1938; New York: Harper, 1938. *''The Fox in the Attic'' (The Human Predicament: Volume I). London: Chatto & Windus, 1961; New York: Harper, 1961. *''The Wooden Shepherdess'' (The Human Predicament: Volume II). London: Chatto & Windus, 1973; New York: Harper, 1973. Short fiction *''A Moment of Time''. London: Chatto & Windus, 1926. *''In the Lap of Atlas: Stories of Morocco''. London: Chatto & Windus, 1979. Non-fiction *''Fiction as Truth: Selected literary writings'' (edited by Richard Poole). Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan: Poetry Wales Press, 1983. Juvenile *''The Spider's Palace, and other stories'' (illustrated by George Charlton). London: Chatto & Windus, 1931; New York: Harper, 1932. *''Don't Blame Me! and other stories''. London: Chatto & Windus, 1940; New York: Harper, 1940. *''Gertrude's Child'' (illustrated by Nicole Claveloux). New York: Harlin Quist, 1966. *''Gertrude and the Mermaid'' (illustrated by Nicole Claveloux). New York: Harlin Quist, 1968. *''The Wonder-Dog: The collected children's stories of Richard Hughes'' (illustrated by Anthony Maitland). London: Chatto & Windus, 1977; New York: Greenwillow, 1977. Collected editions *''Richard Hughes: An omnibus. New York & London: Harper, 1931. ''Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Richar Arthur Warren Hughes, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Oct. 2, 2014. See also * List of British poets References * Richard Perceval Graves: Richard Hughes. A biography. London: A. Deutsch, 1994. Notes External links ;Poems *"Dirge" in A magazine of verse, 1912-1922:'' "[ * Richard Hughes in Georgian Poetry 1920-22 (4 poems) ;About *Richard Hughes in the Encyclopædia Britannica *Richard Hughes in the Encyclopedia of World Biography *Richard Hughes Information from Inspirational Wales ;Etc. *Hughes manuscripts collected at Indiana University Category:English poets Category:English novelists Category:English short story writers Category:English dramatists and playwrights Category:Welsh poets Category:Welsh novelists Category:Welsh short story writers Category:Welsh dramatists and playwrights Category:Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Category:People educated at Charterhouse School Category:People from Weybridge Category:1900 births Category:1976 deaths Category:British radio writers Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Georgian poets Category:People from Surrey